Ryuuou no Oshigoto! – 02

God I love this show – except when it tries to force the whole loli part down our throat. Please Ryuuou, you don’t have to do it to make this show great!

General Impressions

Starting things off on the more serious side, let’s dive into a short conversation about the Ryuuou himself. As the titular character of the show, I’m rather surprised just how well rounded and down to earth this guy is. Seeing how he’s a successful shogi professional who holds the highest title in the entire league, it’s been quite refreshing to see him make thoughtful and downright smart decisions. From sticking up for Ai when he had her mother about to rip his throat out to changing up his playstyle and changing his train of thought now that he had someone looking up to him, it’s a shame we don’t get more main characters like Yaichi.

The reason I brought him up though, was just to touch on how even though we’re only two episodes in, it’s clear that it’s not just Ai who’s learning from those around her. Using his post-victory scene as a prime example, it was great to see the overanalytical Yaichi see that his predictions about what would happen be wrong. That said, I can’t fault the guy for being concerned about his public appearance since he’s in such a unique position that probably draws more attention than it normally would. Perceptions aside, it was great to see Yaichi get a quick payoff for listening to his gut which hopefully in-turn leads to even more small but rewarding moments like this.

Switching gears for a second, let’s talk about the elephant in the room – all the focus the story gives to those adorable girls. A fact that in itself doesn’t really mean much, but when grouped with the term loli or lolicon turns into something a lot worse than it is. First, I don’t have an issue with how the story is handling itself. With most of the situations being pretty tame and the mere fact that Yaichi couldn’t care less about what’s going on (since nothing is going on), it’s simply younger characters getting the opportunity to interact with older ones. However, what I do have a tiny complaint about is how hard the story will try to throw Yaichi into these messy situations. With a majority of the situations being fueled by Ginko going above and beyond the call of duty to make situations worse than they need to be, I really don’t like how she always seems to leap to conclusions without even giving Yaichi a moment to explain what’s going on. Sure, you also have moments like when Ai decides to describe her training experiences using the worst wording possible, but that you could chalk up to an overenthusiastic girl trying to convince their stone-cold parents. Hopefully the story eases up on some of these shenanigans though since they’re sure to grow really old, really fast.

Overall, a pretty darn good second episode. With more characters slowly being introduced and a new mini-boss for Yaichi and Ai to overcome, I can’t wait to see just what happens when Ai takes on some higher level opponents. Anyways, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll hopefully get to see Ai crush some opponents while Yaichi watches with pride as his student tries to prove herself. See you then!

That said, I’d advise these writers to watch the loli use, even if they really like it, lest it starts growing into RL underage stuff. Like what happened to Rurouni Kenshin’s creator, just as he was starting a new Kenshin arc too.

Even without knowing at the time that Ai’s seiyuu also played Black Bullet’s Enju, the being caught “in flagrante” by Ginko scene and the “we were at it all night” misunderstanding felt to me like they were both straight out of Black Bullet.

Evidently not. Apparently this one is more “grounded in reality” so to speak, as in it reflects how the real-life shogi scene works more closely. Lolis like Ai can be considered late starter in the Shogi world, so while the moe-selling intention is very clear, it does not stretch believeability.

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